Police arrested two men from the United Kingdom for attempting to hack Microsoft’s servers. Consequently, authorities charged the pair under the Computer Misuse Act. The alleged offences took place between January and March this year. The arrests are part of a larger investigation into a malicious hacker group, police say.
“Unauthorised Access to the Microsoft Network”
The South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) issued the following statement:
“Detectives from SEROCU have executed two warrants in Lincolnshire and Bracknell and arrested two men this morning (22/6) for conspiracy to gain unauthorised access to the Microsoft network.
A 22-year-old man from Lincolnshire was arrested on suspicion of gaining unauthorised access to a computer.
A 25-year-old man from Bracknell was arrested under computer misuse act offences.
The investigation relates to unauthorised intrusion into networks belonging to Microsoft.”
“Too Early to Speculate”
Meanwhile, it is unknown whether the arrest related to the recent Windows source code leak. Det. Sgt. Rob Bryant of SEROCU said:
“This group is spread around the world and therefore the investigation is being coordinated with our various partners. We’ve made two arrests in the UK this morning and have seized a number of devices.
We are still in the early stages of this investigation and will work with our partners to ensure that cyber criminals have no place to hide.
It is too early to speculate on what information the group have accessed.”
SEROCU worked with Europol, the National Cyber Crime Unit, the FBI, and Microsoft to investigate the hack.
Windows 10 User Data Safe
We don’t know the information accessed by the hackers, but we do know that customer data remains safe. Tom Burt, Microsoft’s Vice President and deputy general counsel of the Digital Crimes Unit, told the BBC:
“No customer data was accessed, and we’re confident in the integrity of our software and systems.“
Presently, the investigation is on-going. However, no connection between the hack and recent Windows 10 source code leak is yet present.
